


All the time in the world

by Mila (sunflowerspp)



Series: Of caution and recklessness [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:02:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23611987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflowerspp/pseuds/Mila
Summary: Most people are in love with the idea of "together forever". Akaashi isn't. He knows it's impossible, even more for someone like him.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou
Series: Of caution and recklessness [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1699711
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	All the time in the world

Akaashi’s hourglass stopped when he was just eight years old.

He would live forever, no matter what he did to try and avoid it. His body would keep growing until he was 25 or 30, and stay like that for eternity. It was an extremely rare disease; no one in his family, none of his friends, not even Akaashi himself, knew someone besides him whose hourglass had stopped running.

The way it happened wasn’t as dramatic as many people made it out to be. “If your hourglass stops running, you’ll feel as if your lungs are on fire”, “if your hourglass stops, it’ll feel like a thousand needles stabbing your heart”, and so on and so forth. Children usually believed these stories, talked about how terrifying it was to think about, but when Akaashi was in school, comparing his hourglass to that of his friends, sharing what each one’s sand was made out of, and seeing as his trickled increasingly slower, until it stopped altogether, well, he didn’t feel anything at all.

Silence fell upon them. His two friends stared at him and his now still sand. Akaashi’s blue eyes rapidly welled with tears as he remembered the words he overheard at a family dinner while he played with one of his cousins: “Living forever would be the biggest curse imaginable. You’d watch everybody die before you. I wouldn’t be able to bear it.”

Back then, he hadn’t paid much heed to it, his hourglass was still working and he believed it would continue to do so until the day he died, but now his mind was swirling with thoughts of saying goodbye to each and every one of the people he loved, for the rest of his life.

His friends called one of the teachers. They came running towards him, and immediately checked his hourglass. Turned it over, tapped it, even shook it a little, but everyone knew it was futile. The sand in an hourglass flowed in a single direction, no matter how much it was shaken, nor if it was turned upside down- the tiny grains would still fall in the same direction.

His parents didn’t take it well, but that was to be expected. An hourglass stopping was the greatest tragedy of all, worse than seeing how few specks there were left to fall. They took him home that day, and then called several doctors, but of course, there was no way to fix it.

It was best if Keiji was homeschooled, his grandmother advised; his parents readily agreed, and he wasn’t against it, it was irritating how everyone in school looked and whispered about him, as if he were some sort of freak.

When he was twelve, he began thinking that if his life was never going to end, he could do what he wanted, since he was never going to die after all. His house was on the outskirts of town, near a lake and plenty of trees. He knew many kids played there, so why not give it a try?

Despite that everyone knew he was “Akaashi Keiji, the poor kid who would live forever”, they really didn’t mind the fact, and became his friends. For two whole years, Akaashi stopped thinking about when they were going to die and leave him all alone.

But nothing good ever lasts.

And death wasn’t the only way to abandon someone.

One day, when he was fourteen, he met up with the same group like every other afternoon.

When he arrived, they were all looking up at a huge tree and shouting words of encouragement.

“Keiji’s here,” one of them said, and everyone’s gaze landed on him. “The ball’s stuck in the tree, and now Kyou can’t get down.”

“My parents are home, I can go get them,” he offered. He lived the closest by. Akaashi drew closer to the trunk and looked up. True enough, one of the kids was clinging to a big branch, his eyes watery.

“No, if you go up, it’ll be okay because you can’t die.” The other children nodded their agreement. “Fate will prevent any accidents from happening.”

In a way, the boy was right, since he couldn’t die, it was as if luck were always on his side, always helping him from getting too hurt.

Akaashi started to climb the tree. It had plenty of sturdy branches, so he mapped out his route as he went along. Akaashi reached him, tried to calm him down. It was easy enough, and Kyou knew that nothing bad would ever happen as long as he was with Akaashi.

Not quite.

Akaashi tried to guide him down the same path he took, going first in order for Kyou to see the hand and footholds so he wouldn’t fall. That is, until Kyou stepped on a patch of moss and slipped. He hurtled towards the ground and landed harshly on his back with a sickening thud.

Akaashi looked down in a panic, his friends surrounding Kyou. “He’s unconscious,” another said. The words rang in his head as he scrambled down the branches, and anxious thoughts surged forth, threatening to drown everything else out.

Akaashi ran to his house to ask his parents for help. They took his friend to the hospital. The bubble of guilt in his chest expanded; he couldn’t stop thinking about how Kyou could have died because of him, how it should have been him that fell from the tree, but Akaashi knew the world wouldn’t allow that to happen.

Kyou turned out to be okay, he didn’t have any serious injuries, and was allowed to go home the following day. He wasn’t mad at Akaashi either, he even thanked him for trying to help him.

His friends’ parents weren’t so kind- they came to an agreement that they didn’t want Akaashi close by, and even though his friends defended him, saying it was an accident and that it was their idea, they wouldn’t budge.

Akaashi’s parents defended him of course, but there wasn’t much they could do if every time a kid came close to Keiji, they were quickly pulled away.

Akaashi learned to distance himself from others once more and didn’t find it so bad after all.

A couple more years passed, and during that time he found something to do: Akaashi started drawing. He drew every minute he could, and he quickly fell in love with it. Of course, at the beginning Akaashi wasn’t as good as he would have cared to be, but he liked making an effort to get better.

Although he liked to walk around to find something to draw, drawing the gazes of the people who lived nearby was uncomfortable. It had been two years since the incident, but they still seemed to think that something bad would happen to them if they came near.

A few of Akaashi’s childhood friends liked to tease him once in a while, but they couldn’t pull a reaction out of him. They couldn’t make something happen to him anyway, so Akaashi could really care less.

“Can we leave?” Akaashi asked his mother during breakfast. His father had to work and she had the day off.

“Leave where?” she asked, not understanding the question.

“Somewhere else, I don’t like it here.”

Maybe it was a little selfish asking his parents to move because he wanted to, and doing so was no guarantee that people would accept him, but he still wanted to move.

“Dad said he’d like to move someplace closer to work, and yours would be closer too. We can start searching for a new house.” Akaashi grew up to be a serious boy, but his mother could see the hints of sadness and worry in his eyes despite his deceivingly calm tone.

She sighed. “I’ll talk it over with him okay? Don’t worry.” She got up, picked up the dishes from the table and planted a kiss on his forehead.

And they did. His father agreed, and between the three of them they searched for a new house.

They chose one that wasn’t downtown, nor too close to it. It was in a calm neighborhood, with spaces between each house, but not too much.

The place was a tad smaller, but much prettier and cozier compared to the old one, which was old and built of a dark wood that gave it a depressing atmosphere.

The new house had a large back garden, that even though it would need some work, definitely caught Akaashi’s attention and called him to draw there.

Akaashi couldn’t deny he was excited for the change of setting and his parents also seemed happy. They approved it, and were decided- they’d move in in a few days’ time.


End file.
